Fair question. I've seen it on LinkedIn, Reddit, in sales calls. "Isn't this just SEO with a new acronym so agencies can charge more?" The skepticism is warranted. Marketing loves inventing terms.
From my experience running both SEO and GEO campaigns for 50+ B2B companies, here's the honest answer: there's real overlap, real differences, and real reasons to be suspicious of some providers.
Let me break down what's genuinely new, what's recycled, and how to tell if someone is selling you SEO in a GEO wrapper.
TL;DR
About 40% of GEO work overlaps with good SEO. If someone's doing SEO well, they're already doing part of GEO.
The other 60% is genuinely different: entity authority, AI-specific content structure, cross-platform consistency, and authority signals beyond backlinks.
Red flag: if a 'GEO agency' can't explain the difference between Perplexity and ChatGPT optimization, they're probably rebranding.
The term may be new. The need is real. Buyers are using AI. The question is whether you're visible.
The Honest Overlap
Let's start with what GEO shares with SEO. I'm not going to pretend everything is new:
What GEO Inherited from SEO
The ~40% that's genuinely the same
1
Quality Content Matters
Thin content doesn't rank in Google, and it doesn't get cited by AI. The 'create valuable content' principle is identical.
2
Technical Foundation
Site speed, clean architecture, crawlability. AI systems access your content through crawling too. Good technical SEO helps.
3
Schema Markup
Structured data helps Google understand your content. It helps AI systems too. Same implementation, broader benefit.
4
Backlinks Signal Authority
Quality backlinks tell Google a site is trustworthy. Those same links are web mentions that AI training data captures.
Honest take: If you're doing SEO well, you're already doing about 40% of GEO. Anyone who says GEO is completely different is overselling.
The Genuine Differences
Now here's what's actually different. This is the 60% that SEO doesn't cover:
SEO vs GEO: The Real Differences
Click each difference to understand the distinction
SEO Approach
Rank pages higher in search results
GEO Approach
Get cited as a trusted source in AI answers
Why This Matters
SEO wins when users click your link. GEO wins when AI recommends you by name. Different success metrics entirely.
One of the core GEO concepts that has no SEO equivalent is the Trust Hub. While SEO focuses on building backlinks to your pages, GEO maps the specific sources that AI systems cite when answering questions in your category. These are often different from your top referring domains.
Trust Hub Radar: Finding YOUR Citation Sources
Tap to enlargeClick to enlarge
The Trust Hub audit identifies which third-party sources AI actually cites for your category. Then you systematically build presence on those sources, not just any high-DA site. This is entity-level thinking, not page-level link building.
The Visual: How Rankings vs Citations Work
SEO Goal vs GEO Goal
Same buyer. Different discovery path. Different winner.
The Skeptic's Checklist
How do you know if someone is actually doing GEO or just relabeling their SEO services? Use this:
GEO vs Rebranded SEO Detector
Questions to ask any GEO provider
1. "How do you optimize differently for ChatGPT vs Perplexity?"
Score: 3+ red flags = they're probably rebranding SEO. 4+ green signs = legitimate GEO expertise.
Why the Confusion Exists
Three reasons people are skeptical (and often right to be):
1. Agencies saw an opportunity
When ChatGPT exploded, every SEO agency added 'AI optimization' to their services page. Many did this without any new methodology, testing, or results. They're selling the same deliverables with new terminology.
2. The acronym is unfortunate
"GEO" sounds like someone just swapped letters in "SEO" for marketing purposes. The term invites skepticism. Whether you call it GEO, AIO, or "AI visibility," the underlying work is what matters.
3. Some SEO does help AI visibility
This creates genuine ambiguity. Good SEO creates quality content that AI might cite. So some SEO agencies can point to AI visibility results from regular SEO work. The question is whether they're maximizing it.
What Actually Matters
Forget the terminology debate. Here's what you need to know:
🎯
The Channel Shift is Real
Whether you call it GEO or not, buyers are using AI to research. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot. If you're not visible there, you're missing opportunities. That's not marketing hype. It's observable behavior.
🔬
Different Platforms Need Different Tactics
Perplexity uses real-time web access. ChatGPT uses training data. Google AI Overviews pull from search results. Anyone doing 'AI optimization' without acknowledging these differences is just doing SEO.
🏗️
Authority Comes Before Optimization
This is the real difference. SEO optimizes content to rank. GEO builds entity authority so AI systems trust and cite you. You can't optimize your way to AI visibility if the model doesn't know who you are.
📊
Measurement is Completely Different
SEO tracks rankings, traffic, clicks. GEO tracks citation rates, mention accuracy, entity consistency, and share of voice in AI answers. Different KPIs, different tools, different dashboards.
The Test: Ask Your Current Agency
If you're working with an SEO agency that now offers GEO, here are the questions that separate real expertise from relabeling:
7 Questions to Test GEO Expertise
Use these in your next agency call
1
"What content formats get cited most by AI systems?"
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2
"How do you track whether we're being cited in ChatGPT?"
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3
"What's llms.txt and should we implement it?"
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4
"How long until we see results in ChatGPT vs Perplexity?"
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5
"What's your approach to entity consistency?"
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6
"Show me a case study with AI visibility metrics."
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7
"What would you do first for a new GEO client?"
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The Bottom Line
Is GEO just SEO rebranded? About 40% of it, yes. The overlap is real and anyone who denies it is overselling.
Is there something genuinely new? Yes. Entity authority, platform-specific optimization, and AI-focused measurement are real disciplines that didn't exist in traditional SEO.
Should you be skeptical? Absolutely. Many agencies slapped "GEO" on their existing services. Test any provider with the questions above. Real expertise shows in the answers.
Does the terminology matter? No. Call it whatever you want. What matters is whether your buyers are using AI to research, and whether you're visible when they do.
Helping SaaS companies and developer tools get cited in AI answers since before it was called "GEO." 10+ years in B2B SEO, 50+ cybersecurity and SaaS tools clients.
